Topic: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

I was lucky enough to be able to get nice high quality versions of just about all the shots that I worked on for last years, well this years if your in Europe & the UK, The Muppets. And with the breakdowns that I had access to I put together a showcase piece that shows off my work.

This is long, 8+ minutes, so not really for a "this is the kind of things that I've done" reel, more for a "these are the Muppets shots that I got to work on" piece.

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

Thanks for the kind words, I really had a blast both having almost full sequences to work on, as well as the simple fact that it was Muppets, but ... yeah it was a lot of shots. This was the reason I was missing so many weekend recordings.

The scan lines were a combination of a nuke plugin, hate using those, that generated the solid separation lines to give it the base "TV" look, and a second pass that was run through the Flame with a banding color effect. By combining those two in various levels with a few other tweaks we were able to get a look that not only looked good on the tv set itself while they were in the tv, but could be modulated slightly so that when they came out we got that "part of the tv" effect that they were looking for. It was more dialing in the look for that effect that took the time, the TV itself was almost more trouble as it was often shot without a screen and bottom at all, so I would have to completely rebuild the base and screen, with the correctly feeling convexness to have that old school look.

The Blue on Blue, was in reality not as bad as you would think. Before things actually shot they did alot of tests with various cameras and blue&green screens to find what worked best. the decision was made that green just didn't work with Kermit in so many shots, but for some reason the levels of blue that we would encounter in the Muppets was usually not enough to cause issues, with exceptions for things like Dr Teeth's hat feather or Gonzo's head feathers, those were either to true blue or "soft" that they didn't like to pick up.

On the arches, I had quite a few ladies for example that had blue fringe or highlighting in their dresses, that just didn't like the blue as much as I would like, but I was able to get the overall shape, so just ended up patching in the interior holes as needed.

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

So under the terms of your contract, are these clips allowed to be released publicly? Because this actually is a publicly-viewable forum, membership is only required for posting.

... true enough, but it is likely not to be searched for, and it wont be on the overall searches that people do for the video itself on Vimeo.

... technically ... I never actually signed a contract when they brought be back for Captain America, and then Muppets then Underworld, it was kind of a "we liked you before, just come in and start working" so ... If I wanted to be an ass about it I would just shrug and say oh well.

But I figure with the password and "limited access" I'm doing pretty well for not getting myself in trouble.

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

The official modus operandi of the forum is one of hyper-encouragement for showing off your work when you have the right to do as much. If there's legal ways to see all of that shit elsewhere online, then it's just another reel. If not, eh. Yank until there is.

This one is your call.

I think we should aim for somewhere between attracting attention and fascism. Maybe somewhere in the realm of Gay Cheney.

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

Fair enough - in my experience, it's always been a very specific contractual thing as to when artists are allowed to add shots to their reels - usually because the studio mandates it. At best it isn't until the movie debuts, often it isn't until it's released on video. But of course I haven't worked with every company, some may not have that requirement. Or if they just never get around to making you sign a contract at all, then rock on.

Cute story from my Tippett days, I got a reel from an animator who specifically said in his cover letter: "I'm not supposed to release these clips yet, but I thought you'd find them interesting." Well yes, is IS interesting that you'd actually tell us, your next prospective employer, that you are openly ignoring the terms of your contract with your previous employer. I mean, jeezus, at least don't say that.

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

It still, now a good 4 months or so post delivery, one of my favorite shows to have worked on. Not as much for the individual shots, though there were some fun ones, there were also some doozies.

But for the overall spot in my brain that I can now bookmark in my memory as "having worked on a Muppet movie". No matter how old I get, or what other high profile projects I work on down the years, that will stand out.

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

Teague wrote:

Also, I've always had to pester studios to gve me finals to show off. You're apparently lucky, or easy to like, or something.

I've been pestering my last employer for about four months now for my Captain America, Thor and Harry Potter shots. I have the bluray rips since I bought them, but I need my Silhouette project files which they've told everyone we can have. Since it was all 3D conversion roto, there's nothing impressive about just looking at the shots unless you already know what 3D conversion roto looks like. At this point, I might just end up grabbing everything myself since I might be back out there in two weeks

Seth, your Muppets work is impressive... most impressive. I'm glad I got to run into you last June and chat for awhile. At the time I hadn't thought about how much work was involved in the film, but I later read the FX Guide article on it and had to see it on the big screen. I had a lot of fun watching it and was repeatedly impressed with the seamless effect shots throughout

Re: Not for "public" consumption, but for you guys :D

Sorry for not posting recently, been a bit caught up in things at work, with shots that just won't go away.

Thanks so much for the kind words. I seem to run the spectrum of feeling good about the work that I do, and getting nicely self-doubting about if I really deserve to be where I am .

So positive reinforcement is always appreciated.

I recently got a kick from seeing a blog review of the latest episode of Castle, that I got to contribute to, and the reviewer, likely no knowing, specifically called out some of the work that I did as a cool thing. The part of me that loves that usually folks cant see when I do work on a shot jumped for joy that someone noticed, and in a good way.